Hints and Tips

Prior to selecting any fertilizer, there are numerous factors that have to be considered if one is going to get the most from their choice of fertilizer. Water quality is one factor that can have the greatest effect on how a fertilizer performs for a grower.

Peat moss has numerous characteristics that makes it ideal as the main ingredient for growing substrates.
However, not all peat moss is the same. Berger recognizes this and takes extra steps to optimize its production and enhance these characteristics, making sure its products are always uniform and of the highest quality.

Strawberries are one of the most important fruit crops in the world, and Quebec – the third largest producer in North America after California and Florida – supplies 50% of Canada’s total production. Strawberry production methods across the province have changed at an impressive rate over the last twenty years.

As poinsettia growers, we cannot neglect practices that increase the post-production longevity of the plants we grow. The main objective is to produce a quality poinsettia at the proper stage of development. From mid-November until shipping, concerns such as fertilizing, watering, plant environment, root health, maturity and sleeving can all have profound effects on post-harvest quality once purchased by consumers.

As we approach the month of December, hopefully everything we have done up to this time has prepared the poinsettia for the final stage of its growth cycle. Bract development is near completion, the root system is healthy and well established, and the size, tone and colour of the leaves have been optimized by a sound fertilization program.

The month of November focuses on bract expansion and cyathia development. Regardless of the region that you grow in, days are becoming shorter, light intensity has decreased, and the growth rate of the plants has slowed down when compared to growth activity during weeks 31 – 39.

The month of October begins with the transition from vegetative growth to bract and flower development in poinsettias. Cultural and environmental practices should now be directed towards reducing bract edge burn (BEB), a marginal edge necrosis that colored bracts are particularly susceptible to.

For poinsettias, the time of natural floral initiation is centered on the period between September 18th and 27th. As long as the day length is not altered artificially, cultivars will flower in 7 to 10 weeks after initiation, depending on the response group of the particular cultivar.

A misconception is basically information taken out of context that then becomes misleading. Greenhouse visits, conference seminars, trade shows and the Internet are all good tools for obtaining information